Lost – ‘The Incident Parts 1 & 2’ – 5.16 & 5.17

Screw Lost.

I want to talk about Fringe.

Here’s a show I derided all season. Kept starting and restarting more times than the Lohan/Ronson debacle. Was on again/off again more times than Ross and Rachel. (Who? What?) And then I settled down and started watching it again a few weeks back – largely buoyed by the Leonard Nimoy casting and bullied by our own Carlos. (I kid! I kid!!!)

And it all paid off beautifully in an epic season finale that drew the blueprint for how to close out a season strong. ‘There is More Than One of Everything’ answered some major questions that simply opened the portal to an entire alternate universe of unending possibilities. And then J.J. Abrams and his crack team of writers/strategists shuttered the night with one final, haunting image that was completely jaw-dropping in all its photorealistic glory.

Hats off to Abrams. This guy is mad talented and we’re lucky to be exposed to his sickness.

Now, enough about all that “Screw Lost” malarkey. We’re here to recap Abrams’ other brainchild – although arguably, it’s his fellow wizards Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof who have nurtured this baby. And oh baby, did we get our own world blasted last night. Let’s get Lost.

1. Y’all owe me ¾ a PS3 so take up that collection. Last week I theorized that the bomb would go off, we would fade to black (and then I wrote – “or white”) and then we’d open with Jack’s eye flashing open. Well, I was mostly right. The bomb went off. We faded to white. And then – in a tease as frustrating as the Season 1 Finale that ended with the hatch opening and then… BAM… Credits – we didn’t get to see what happened right after that event. Although, in the tease for the Final Season, they closed on Jack’s eye opening. So, I don’t care if it’s just the housing or the internal components or you just send me the Blu-Ray drive stripped from the system, I’m expecting my ¾ PS3 by the end of the week.

2. I’m going to revisit those final moments towards the end but I had to lead with that. Also, this post is going to deviate from the norm as I’m not intending to hit on all plot points but rather the big picture elements that fell into place. I’m running this freestyle so I’ll probably pop all over the place. I apologize for the lack of cohesiveness but I’m hammering away at this while fighting off the last nagging strains of a killer head cold. I’ve got Slime Management problems.

3. I was right!!! A few weeks back, I theorized that John Locke was the physical manifestation of Smokey. Now, the jury is out on that slight detail, but we got conclusive evidence that John Locke was not raised from the dead. Instead, an entity had taken his form and duped everyone, including Richard, Ben and JACOB!!!, into marching directly to the lion’s den (or feet) and capping the island’s capo.

4. And who is that entity, but the mysterious black clad stranger – the Yin to Jacob’s Yang, who engaged in idle chatter during the episode’s prologue as they watched The Black Rock come sailing in. That sequence alone was pregnant with possibilities and I’ll parse through them in a second. But, it’s clear that the Man in Black was waltzing around a wolf in John Locke clothing and suddenly all those inferences to John Locke appearing different made complete, logical sense. He seemed different because he was different. Merely a mirage parading around the island for one specific purpose – to utilize a loophole whereby he could entice someone to do his bidding.

5. That opening scene made it clear that these two entities were locked in some cosmic game – and despite the fact that the Man in Black wanted to kill Jacob – some “rules” governing things prevented him from doing first blood. That opening sequence really set the stage for what this show has been all about. Here we go.

6. When I first started this Blog, sometime around Season 3, I theorized that the island was essentially the birthplace of “Good” and “Evil”. I based the theory on a number of factors – the various religious metaphors and symbolism that have cropped up, the judging nature of Smokey, the continuing juxtaposition of “Black” and “White”, and of course, those “cursed” numbers that seemingly emanate from the island and influence off-island events.

7. My theory was that the forces of good and evil in the world were kept constant through a set of checks and balances. The whole notion of a cosmic chess game. That this island was kept hidden for a very specific reason. It influenced “good” and “evil” in the world and as long as it did so by the “rules” and at arm’s length – then the world would keep on running. But, if the island was found and its truths exploited, then what we’d have is Eden becoming Pandora’s Box, with untold number of terrible things pouring out and destroying the Earth.

8. That was my theory and I’ve been sticking to it. And I think, last night proved that I am somewhat on course. It’s clear that Jacob and the Man in Black are the physical manifestations of some sort of higher powers. The age-old embodiment of good versus evil which as symbolized in black and white has been a recurring motif on this show going all the way back to Season 1 with the discovery of those black and white stones in the cave where they first found water – the discovery of the “Adam” and “Eve” skeletons.

9. Now, we learned that Jacob resides in the shadow of the statue – or, at the very least, in its kicks. So who’s been slumming in the teleporting Love Shack? Based on what we learned last night, I think we’ve all been duped. In fact, if you recall, Ben was the only person who led Locke to the shack – the supposed resting place for Jacob. The other times the shack made an appearance, it did so of its own accord. When Locke asked to be taken to Jacob, Richard brought him right to the foot. Meaning, he was telling the truth. That’s where you go to find Jacob.

10. And now it all makes sense. When Locke first confronted Jacob, he heard a ghost whisper, “Help me”. And he took that as his calling. That he would help the man in the chair. Locke – the perpetual con victim – may have suffered his greatest con in helping the Man in Black break from his shackles, and ultimately, over his dead body, aided MiB in coercing Ben to do his dark bidding.

11. All of these examples of trickery are emblematic of the seductive sway employed by Evil – the Big Bads of this World. We saw MiB’s grand scheme and how neatly all the pieces fell into place. He used Locke and Danielle to make truth out of a blinding white lie – somehow duping the World Heavyweight Champ of Liars, Ben. Somehow Satan got behind him, as it’s want to do, and preyed upon Ben’s Achilles Heel. We know that at some point, Ben was raised by Richard to be the Chosen One and yet Ben never once saw Jacob. And the place where Ben thought Jacob resided never once pulled the Haunted Mansion routine on him. For decades it let Ben stew in a lie. All those around him thought he was the Chosen One and he lived this masquerade, full of self-doubt that one day he would be revealed to be a False Prophet. And that final push came when John Locke arrived on the island and the real Jacob stood up and saw his Messenger – and the Man in Black kept on rocking while his cabin was a knocking, at ease that the final pieces of his end game were in play. Longing and jealousy was all that was needed to push Ben over the edge.

12. In a show brimming with con men, the ultimate trickster Ben fell victim to the longest con of them all – one that stretched decades. As Ben stewed and Richard continued to cultivate Locke’s date with destiny, with some help from an off-island Jacob, the Man in Black knew he had found his loophole. One day he would have someone so full of hatred of Jacob that he could get this mortal to strike down a deity and thus throw the natural order into chaos. And in those final moments last night, that is exactly what happened.

13. Making me wonder, how the hell are they gonna’ wrap this up in 16 episodes. That’s all we’ve got left.

14. One last thing before I hit some other points. I mentioned the first scene was absolutely laying it clear. None was more telling than the dialogue where Jacob and his buddy ruminated on the fate that would soon befall the Black Rock. The Man in Black correctly intimated that Jacob had coaxed that vessel to the island – my guess, for a similar purpose as MiB – only, his soldiers would not be coerced but would be given the touch and free will in order to choose their place along the path of destiny. But, MiB is a corrupter and he called it correctly. They’ll come. They’ll fight. They’ll die. And the record will keep on playing. The snake will continue noshing its tail.

15. But, Jacob made a telling remark. “There is only one ending. Everything else is progress.” In other words – the story may repeat but some small measure of advancement is gained each time it spins around. On board the Black Rock, I believe Richard Alpert sailed. (We know now that he’s no Pharaoh. He is that way because of Jacob). And Richard Alpert is the pawn that Jacob gained in that round. One small measure of progress.

16. Making you wonder if Flight 815 is the final piece of the puzzle. I really believe that next season will begin with them crashing on the island but things will play out in a much more abbreviated fashion. What if they crash on the island (all of them – meaning a return of the original cast) but they retain the knowledge of what has occurred. Meaning, now there is less squabbling, back-stabbing and fighting and instead, we have a unified group aimed at ending MiB’s deception. Jacob’s final words were “They’re coming.” My guess. Flight 815 has taxied for takeoff in Sydney and is on fast approach for Crash #2, with a rejuvenated cast ready to end this once and for all. If I’m right, y’all owe me the other ¼ of that PS3.

17. You could write a complete dissertation on last night’s episode (which I apparently already have) and most of that is based completely on the opening and closing segments. So, I’ll try to race through the rest of my thoughts in far quicker fashion and anything I’ve missed is the reason the Comments were invented.

18. I thought the device showing us Jacob appearing before each character in Flashback was masterful. There is definitely a higher power-esque vibe emanating from these encounters. I mean, each one of them were literally touched by Jacob. Kate got a tap on the nose and a friendly admonition that Thou Shalt Not Steal. Jack got the outstretched hand (with candy bar) and the words “I guess it just needed a little push”. And Locke was given a new lease on life as Jacob expressed his sorrow for how poorly his life had gone. And that’s the other thing. In a lot of these instances, Jacob expressed sorrow for the bad events that transpired (Sawyer’s parents) but seemed to underscore that these matters, no matter how tragic, were out of his hands which neatly underscored his opening debate with MiB concerning “free will”. Now, I’m no Bible Thumper by any measure but I do find allegory fascinating and I think Lost had done a masterful job of weaving all manner of scientific, supernatural and faith based thinking into one grand, simmering pot. It’s just a great, fascinating fiction to stew over.

19. How dare they kill the Yummy Mommy Juliet and leave me to loath Freckles for one more season? I know Elizabeth Mitchell is signed onto the V remake – making that appointment viewing in my book – but I would have given this episode 5 Mooninites and thrown in a couple Ebert’s for good measure if they had finally rid me of Freckles. I don’t see what Sawyer and Jack see in her.

20. That said, at least Juliet didn’t go out a punk. Like her namesake, she rose from apparent death in order to do the job proper, bashing that rock upside Jughead and rebooting the show.

21. Before I forget, once again, Ilyana’s people proclaimed that they are the Good Guys. That said, we did see Ilyana visited by Jacob while in seriously bad shape and asked to go on one more mission. And, here’s where I’ve cheated a bit. Once again, she offered the cryptic “What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue?” to which Richard answered in Latin. I’ve cheated on this and actually looked up his translation on a spoiler site. Richard answered: “He who shall save us all.” I think that phrase was given to Ilyana as a means of gaining entrance to Richard’s inner circle of trust. They are all disciples.

22. Also, I firmly believe that Smokey is MiB or at least controlled by him.

23. We also saw Dr. Chang suffer his hand injury. During the Orientation Film where he discussed ‘The Incident‘, he sported a prosthetic. Now we know why.

24. It was good to see Phil get it but I really wish Sawyer had made good on his promise.

25. And how ‘bout that battle royale between Sawyer and Doc? “Put the damn glasses on.”

That’s more than enough fodder for discussion. I’ll let you guys fill in the blanks. See you next week for Hannah Montana – ‘The Clueless Rubes Still Don’t Know’ – 7.13.

You are right on. That was Jacob that visited her which makes more sense to my theories then if it were the Man in Black. Basically, I think they are all there in service of Jacob and MiB is playing the weaker, flawed members. In a sense, this is setting itself up like Stephen King’s classic tale The Stand – which the creators listed as an inspiration way back when it began.

Good catch.

And now that we know Rose and Bernard retired to the 70’s – I think the theory of them being the skeletons just got a ton of weight added.

My sister thought the eye was Juliet’s, actually. It did look feminine to me as well.

I love that Rose said, “We’re retired.” It seemed to me that they had learned whatever lessons the island had to offer and that they ‘graduated’, passing its tests and now living in peace. They could have been Jacob’s one victory in that particular round.

Awesome episode! Juliet looked great didn’t she? I felt bad for Sawyer, he was so trying to do the right thing…And Juliet, with that one glance she saw, bam, changed her mind. Did you catch Juliet may have been pregnant? My wife and a friend of mine caught that. I loved how they showed Jacob weaving the blanket? and then weaving his way through all of their lives. Ed, you’ve nailed it though, I could not believe it when they faded to white, with LOST in black letters and the the eye. Dude! Great write up, it’s all covered. And yes it was great to see R&B again. Thanks for mentioning that quote from Jacob “There is only one ending. Everything else is progress.” We re-watched that part a few times. One note, Jacob with Sayid, was he the impetus to letting Nadia die? I hope they all get to meet Jacob and remember how he was there all of those times. Fringe was incredible. Did you see the headlines on the NY Post? Feel better man!

@Carlos – I don’t think Jacob was the impetus for Nadia’s death but he did prevent Sayid from getting nailed. If you remember, Widemore’s men were responsible for killing Nadia. Sayid may have been the main target but Jacob still had a need for him.

Ahh…I didn’t think of that perspective, that he prevented Sayid from getting hit rather than making Nadia get hit. Yes, I remember Widemore’s men were repsonsible but was confused, is that now changed? Were the men the one’s in the car I guess?

@Ed and All- Did Dr. Chang and the Dharma initiative cease to exist right after the “incident” because of the explosion? Therefore all Orientation films after that are no more? And then, if next season they start with FLT # 815 again, it will be brought down because of Jacob, not the Swan losing control? And with Jacob touching all of their lives, was it all to culminate at that point, next season, or because of everything we just saw that lead up to all of this? Or was 815 always supposed to go down somehow, to save Jacob (or defeat MiB), it’s just the first time around it didn’t work out all that well??

Nice job Ed. You seem to be right on a lot of what is going on. I thought this was a great episode. I too was sad to see Juliet go, but Sawyer was correct in some respect that she was leading the charge on the sub and then changed her mind and then changed it again when they came riding in on the van. You can’t blame Kate for that. If she had taken the seditive they would have been off the island. It will be intereting to see what if anything they remember of what occured. I don’t see Sawyer handling it well. He was so comfortable with Juliet and his life on the island he admits to Jack that he could have went back and stopped the death of his mother and father. Unless he believed what Faraday had said at the time that you can change what has happened. Plus those two finally went toe to toe.

I agree that Jacob was saving Sayid more than assiting the killing of Nadia. Also, Locke came too when Jacob touched him, do you think he had something to do with his surviving? Which is strange since Mib used Locke to kill him. Also I liked how they brought Rose and Bernard back. It was funny when Sawyer said he had sent Jin looking for them and Rose said “we know”.

I was thinking of the “they were coming” to mean Ilena and her group. But I am confused as to why they would go the cabin first if like you think it was Mib in the cabin. I did notice that ash ring around the cabin had a space in it. I am thinking the ring provides some protection (from the smoke monster?) and Jacob could not go back to the cabin since the ring had been broker? I know that ring had been seen in other episodes. Because once the burned the cabin they headed straight for the statue.

There are many other questions that I hope we get in the afformentionted final 16 episodes. I can’t wait for 2010 to find out how they tie this up… and what they leave us hanging on…

Carlos, Dharma lived on after incident as they built the hatch after the incident to prevent further issues and keep the electromagnetic power in check. You can see Dr. Chang’s prostetic hand in the training video that Locke watches in the hatch.

@Carlos: I think all of this was supposed to happen. It keeps going round and round until someone gets it right. Like Jacob said at the beginning, “There is only one ending – everything before that is progress.”

@Chris:
1. Juliet ended up playing a role (in detonating Jughead) so I think it may have been her destiny to change her mind. I just can’t stand Kate’s dour demeanor.

2. The Locke that was resurrected by Jacob (more religious symbolism) after the Fall was the same Locke we know and love. And he was Locke all the way through to his death. There are now two Locke’s on the island. The real one is exactly where Ben left him. Dead!!! MiB is just walking around like him – which appears to be a favorite trick of his – masquerading as dead people. He’s done it with Alex. He’s done it with Yemi. Jury is out on if he’s Christian too. I think MiB specifically used Locke to kill Jacob because he knows that Jacob sees Locke as special so he is someone that could get close to him.

3. Ilyana and her group went to the cabin to confront MiB. I don’t think Jacob ever resided in that cabin. In fact, Ben is the only one who ever said he did – and you know how much you can trust him. I think all along – Jacob has lived in the statue and MiB was imprisoned in that shack. That circle of ash – in folklore – is a charm used to seal a demon in. It was encircling the cabin meaning it was supposed to be keeping MiB imprisoned. The break in the ash (whether intentional or not) released him from his prison.

I firmly believe that Ilyana’s people and Richard’s are all on the same side – disciples of Jacob.

Ed, the cabin explaination make more sense. I guess you could even tie in the “help me” that Locke heard. In some way Locke did help him get what he wanted. I guess my question is if IIyana went to confront MiB with Locke’s body, I am sure what that would do? Wouldn’t that mean that Jacob should have known what was going on and tried to prevent it. Unless it ties back to the there is only one ending quote. Maybe he knows that is destined to be killed, but moves forward knowing it will lead to something greater. This would continue the religous themes you have been speaking of.

@ Chris- I know Dharma lived on afterwards because of the video and the hatch etc, but that was before a nuke was blown. The incident was the releasing of the electromagnetism thus the need for the Swan. Now, there is no need for the Swan, according to Farraday, and presumably Chang is dead. No Swan, no further orientation videos. Except for the “it all going round and round” theory, this, what I just mentioned seems to be plausible. Previously, the bomb did not go off.

Excatly! It’s awesome to think of what they will do next and how much has changed. I think the key, as Ed mentioned, is if they arrive again on The Island, will they remember what happened. Also, when Jacob said they were coming I immediately thought it was Iliana & co but then quickly thought it was 815….just how soon? oh, and remember, Richard knows they all died back then (when Sun showed him the photo) …I wonder how much he knows and does not disclose….

@All – When Jacob said “They’re coming”, Locke/MiB looked real surpised. Seeiing as how he told Richard they were going to take care of the Ajira survivors after they went to see Jacob, I’m not sure surprise would register as fully if Jacob meant Ilyana. So me feeling is it’s some other unseen entity – which I think is Flight 815 getting ready to crash all over again.

At the beginning of the show, Jacob and MiB talked about how Jacob has been luring people to the island for centuries, it appears, and it always ends the same way. They fight. They corrupt. They die.

The fact that Rose underscored that same message in this episode makes me think that Flight 815 is different. They had a second chance to reboot things and my guess is when they crash again, they’ll do things the right way now that they have this knowledge in their heads.

Also, pay attention to how Jacob physically touched each one of them when he visited them. Almost as if we has marking them – making them special.

@Carlos – What’s great about this is we’ll all have our own interpretations and I bet when January 2010 rolls around, we’ll all be proven wrong. (Don’t think that lets any of you off the Free PS3 for Me hook though). Seriously – I agree. I love this stuff!!! It sure is gonna’ be a sad day next May. What am I gonna’ write about then?

Here’s the thing, Ben was right, he always did what Jacob asked, even if he had never met him. He believed in the instructions that came thru Richard. I think Ben is the true chosen one who lost faith when he thought Locke was the chosen one. However, the man in black, as Locke, duped Richard into believing that Locke was the chosen one. As Richard said to Jack, Locke came to him 20 years prior and said he was going to be their leader. Since then he went off island and tested him three times and he was never special, but Jack said not to lose faith in him. Jack only believed that because of Locke dying and being “right.” But Locke only died because Richard told him he was going to die because Locke told him to tell himself that, and of course because Ben killed him, which was because he was threatened by Locke, because of the man in black’s influence.

I think Ed was right, that this Locke is smokey and smokey is the man in black (or at least controlled by him). When smokey appeared to Ben under the temple, you saw on the wall the drawing of him and another (I think, but was there a third character?). The other must have been Jacob. These two are the yin and yang. Locke has always been conned. Duped over and over. We’ve seen it so many times. Ed was right again, it was going to happen again and it did, even though he didn’t want to believe his beloved Locke would be fooled yet again. He was conned into his death. I think he was also conned all along by smokey and believed it was the island telling him what to do. (There’s no island telling anyone to do anything, just Jacob.) As he said to Jacob in the end, he went thru a lot to make this happen. He got Locke to come to the cabin and break that seal to release him, the true him, whereas before he was acting thru smokey. (I might be breaking down a little here.) Smokey is his tool like Richard is Jacob’s. However, Ben was able to summon smokey and went to be judged by it, so which is it, a tool for good or evil? Or both? Presumably Richard knows all about smokey and might have warned Ben, or would he? He’s just an advisor after all. And since he’s an advisor working for Jacob, he’s all about letting free will takes its course too. Even in the end, Jacob gave Ben a choice of free will and asked “what about you?” as he couldn’t answer for Ben, couldn’t tell him anything.

And another thing, when enough people say something, I am going to believe them. In this case, two. Both Richard and Ben said Locke was different and there was no coming back from the dead on the island, at least that they’d seen, so both turned out right. THey boht also thought this new Locke was going to be trouble. I’m following Ben and Richard from now on. Hahaha.

Was it me, or did you find it curious that they show Rose and Bernard’s hut/shack in the scene before they show Illana and her crew coming up on the shack with ash around it? I went back and looked and they are slightly different looking, but considering 30 years had passed, wouldn’t they be? The tree next to them is also larger in future vs. past. The painting of the dog inside kinda looked like Vincent. Hmm… Anyway, Illana’s comment about someone else having been using it is likely in reference to the man in black, but not necessarily Christian. I’m still undecided on who Christian has been working for, man in black or Jacob, but it would still seem thru smokey. What if there are two smokeys?

Not for anything, but I liked Mile’s speech at the end that put everyone a little in doubt about what was about to happen. And, what if the whiteout, flash at the end wasn’t the nuke going off, but another time jump? Richard thinks they all died in the explosion at the Swan, but they flashed back to the present. Miles is right, Jack causes The Incident with the nuke. Just a thought. Probably not right.

Here’s a cap of the eye:

Definitely looks feminine. Juliet has blue eyes. I checked. Same scene, at end, Kate looks to have hazel eyes like this one.

@Carlos: Yeah, I was thinking they flash out of there as the nuke goes off, but that would be some kinda timing, huh? Based on Jacob saying they are coming, I think they flash out of there. Whether or not the nuke goes off or was a dud is another matter, but I just like the idea of one going off for the hell of it. I honestly don’t really have a feel for where this is going end up starting off. Everyone has good thoughts on it though and I’m good with any of them. I’m not good with having to wait 6+ months to find out!

Sean’s right on the money with Smokey/MiB duping Locke. This calls way back to Season 1 when Smokey encountered Locke. Locke said “I stared into the island… and it was beautiful.” We always said that Smoke was a “judging” force. I’m not so sure it was judging so much as evaluating. And in Locke it found someone it could use. Everyone else it encountered, it destroyed, including Mr. Ecko.

And then, in this episode, Smokey says “You have no idea what I had to do to get to this” – meaning he started his long con on Locke way back.

That painting of the dog looks nothing like Vincent. In fact, it looks a lot like Cujo – a real creepy St. Bernard. I think that cabin has been there a lot longer than Rose and Bernard – but who knows. You guys might be right.

Hahaha… Cujo… my alternative was Benji — it does look to have longer hair around the snout — but I wanted to keep my idea alive. The older shack was much more structurally sound looking and sealed better, but then, Rose and Bernard could have continued to work on it over time. We’ll see. I’m not super high on this one holding true.

Either way, I was hoping it would be Claire’s eye (she will definitely be further explained next season!), but her eyes are definitely blue.

I also mostly wonder how much “smokey” has been around that we didn’t notice. Like taking over dead people’s bodies – could that explain the presence of Ben’s mother on the island when he was 13 or so? Or of course Christian – maybe even Claire (is she dead?!?)? Etc etc. Good thought that John has been a pawn the whole time – his connection and faith in the island certainly makes that plausible. And he went through an angry period of time, which was different for him….maybe that’s when he was marked.